In a statement Friday, Apax Partners said it had raised nearly US$7.5 billion for Apax VII, its latest global fund. This comes two years after it had reached out to investors with the capital goal of US$11.8 billion or Eur9 billion for the fund.

Apax was thought to be a strong start in terms of fundraising last March 2012. It had advised investors that it secured US$4.3 billion for the fund. It was able to  each the halfway targets in a short ten months. 

Apax's last buyout fund was Apax Europe VII back in 2007. It was marked for just 1.1 times its initial investment costs with a 2.8% net of its internal rate of return by the end of 2012. This was disclosed to the public through an Apax investor, the Washington State Investment Board.

The firm decided to let go one tenth of its investment staff complement and decrease the heads in its London headquarters after 2008. The decision was reached because of the smaller fund size of the latest one.